Louisa Boddy likes her new teammates. The chemistry between them is great, so good that after losing seven starters (one to injury, the rest to graduation), the UConn field hockey team is 13-0 and ranked third in the country.

She likes the field hockey facilities at UConn. They're nothing like athletic facilities in her home country of England, which are rather Spartan.

She liked that, once she joined the team, she got free field hockey gear, shirts and sweats. In England, university players pay for everything, including travel and uniforms.

She likes the media attention, which her teams never got in England; Boddy, a graduate student at UConn from Derbyshire, England, who plays defense and is third in scoring on the team, was in Faces in the Crowd in Sports Illustrated last week.

She also loves that there are four other players from Great Britain playing for the Huskies.

So Boddy, 23, is not too homesick, except for one thing.

"I miss my baked beans," Boddy said. "I love baked beans."

But, she was reminded, we have baked beans here.

"But not proper ones," Boddy protested.

They're horrible, she said to her British teammates nearby. "Aren't they?"

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Lori Riley: UConn Field Hockey Team's Chemistry Includes International Element